The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-03-09
CIRCUS SECRETS.
THE FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT.
OF A "BIG SHOW"
The Cost of Transportation-What
it Costs to Feed Animals
Pay of Performers
and Agents.

usually puts out from $4,000 to $4,000
sheets of paper, which costs from nine to
fifteen cents sheet to get on the walls,
printing posting and all. Railroading or
transportation requires from $3.50 to $500
per day, according to the distance be-
tween the Islands" and the magnitude Of
the show. Barnum, Forepaugh, Cole,
both Robbincs, Doris, O'Brien and few
others own their own cars. Forepaugh
has sixty-two cars in all. Each is sixty
feet long, and on them are carried 1856
people, $50 head of horses, forty-fve
, cages of animals, sixty baggage wagons,
ta6lcau cars, etc., and thirty elephants.
i A circus pays q certain sum, previously
agreed upon, to railway company for a
run" that is, transportation from one
place to another; and it usually costs lit
tie or no more to run 100 or $50 miles
than it does to make twenty-five miles.
All that the railway company furnishes
are the engines and train men. The cir
Gus attaches (not including, of course,
the performers) load and unload the
show, and as most of the hands are ex
perienced they arc able to handle great
deal of property in the course OF few
hours.
The salary list of a good-sized circus
runs anywhere from $500 to 81, 500 a
day. Forepaugh's pay roll calls for the
latter amount, and the list of the Barnum
show is claimed to be even higher. These
figures include the pay of performers,
! agents, hostlers, canvas-men, grooms aad
trainers, or "razor-backs," as they are
facetiously called. Of course, the per-
formers get the most money. Last sea-
son the Barnum people paid an English
trio of trapeze performers, Lolo, Lola and
Sylvester-the latter man-$250 week
and their expenses. Forepaugh pays
William Showles, the bareback rider,
$3.50 a week, and yet has some eques-
trians in his employ who draw as low as
$25 or $50 weekly. Acrobats are always
we'll paid when their act is graceful and
diverting. They generally travel in
teams of two and three, and do what are
known as 'brother acts" The three
Lamartine brothers, for instance, draw
$3.50 a week from Forepaugh's pay clerk.
Many of these performers do two or three
different acts, and, indeed, they will
tackle almost anything, from a flying
trapeze to horizontal bar, while nearly
all are good tumblers and leapers, easily
and advantageously used in "the grand
tumbling and finale" so familif. to circus
goers. There are many groups of per-
formers who turn themselves into "fami-
lies," and by doing daring act of some
novel kind, are often able to get 5000 or
$500 week. Clowns are exceedingly
plentiful, and may be engaged for as low
as $40 week.
Besides what we classed as the regular
expenses of a circus, each show has its
so-callcd "locals," the term applied to all
incidental outlays, such as for licenses,
rent of lots to show on, hotel bills, feed
for the animals, provisions, and any other
items not included in the departments
already enumerated. The feeding of the
animals does not amount to so much as
might be imagined. There are certain
classes of animals, known to circus men
as hay animals, bread animals, meat ami
mails, etc. Three hundred pounds Of
meat, three tons of hay and $50 pounds
of bread will fill the whole menagerie of
any of the big shows. When the snakes
eat, which is only once in every three
months, they must be fed with doves,
rabbits or pigeons. 1t takes the romance
out of your early knowledge of natural
history, by the way, to hear well-posted
circus man tell you that it's all nom
sense to talk about ''snakes fascinating
their prey" When hungry, he asserts
most positively, snakes will strike any
live animal within reach, and lay hold of
it without the slightest preliminary move
ment. When snake has particularly
good appetite he will get away with five
or six birds at single meal.
AS for the feeding of the people them
selves, some circuses provide the meals in
cook tents of their own, while Others ar
ranged with hotels. Forepaugh runs a
special dining car in conjunction with his
train, and all his principal performers are
served with their meals on this car, in
the most perfect order. He also erects a
special camp, or cook tent, for the pur-
pose of feeding his men on the grounds.
Putting all these items of expense into
lump sum, it will be seen that the cost
of operating a big circus reaches from
So, 500 to 81, 500 per day. The cost of
collecting a really good menagerie is a
good deal more than most people would
suppose. Probably it would take at least
5000, 900 to stock any kind of preten-
tious menagerie, such as Barnum, Cole or
Forepaugh would carry, and then the
original purchase is nothing at all to the
expense of maintaining, and from time to
time increasing, the collection. .Ele-
plants are prc-cmincntly the most cx-
pcnsirc features in the get-up Of a
mcnagcric, their value running among
the thousands, according to their age,
size and nature of their training. As all
the big circuscs carry quite a number Of
the pachydcrms, it is not difficult to sec
where 100000 would be represented in
that branch of the menagerie alone. III
deed, Adam Forcpaugh is wont to boast
that his thirty elephants are worth fully
500, 900, and that his entire collection
of animals counld not be bought for less
than $500, 900.
I had almost forgotten to include the
hire of the agent in this enumeration OF
tent shows expenses. He is ubi4ui-
tous, yet necessary, and when there arc
many of him--as happens in the make
up of all the leading circuses-he is
gilt-edged item on the pay roll. | know
it to be fact that when, not many sea-
sons ago. the Barnum people hired about
all the agents they could flourish contracts
at, they found that they had agreed to
pay no less than $50, 900 for this branch
of their work for that year. Many circus
agents arc employed by the year, in spite